Still To Pay You Back
by Outre nar Ficta Orbis
Summary: Winter has come to East City, and best friends Jen and Tora are out for dinner. But there is a pair of unexpected guests joining them, or at least unexpected for Tora. Jen planned for this though.


**Still To Pay You Back**

Winter was always hard in the East City, as the two young women were getting to know well, fighting against the cold chills that worked their way through the thick winter coats. The purple haired woman pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders and folded her arms, as she walked close to her orange and black haired friend. It was yet another cruelly cold evening in East City as Jennifer escorted her best friend, Tora, to a popular restaurant in the city centre. During the walk from Jennifer's place to the restaurant, there was much coat pulling and chattering teeth, Jen and Tora walking much faster and closer together to fight the cold.

"Jenny!" Tora whined as the evening air dropped another few degrees, causing the pair to pull their coats even tighter around themselves again, thankful that the rain had ceased earlier. Jen gritted her teeth at the nickname, and pushed forward, walking faster so that she could be out of the cold that much sooner. "How much further is it? Seriously, couldn't we have taken a car?"

"I don't have a car," Jen stated dryly holding off an annoyed tone, the terrible cold making Tora's complaints that bit more unbearable. "And I haven't a clue how to drive."

"Your boyfriend has a car," Tora reminded, something suggestive and teasing in her tone, a small smirk creeping across her lips as she peered at the annoyed look Jen was desperately trying to use to hide the content smile at the mention of her 'boyfriend'.

"Roy is not my boyfriend," Jen bit out. "What does that even matter in the first place?"

"Well," Tora started, drawing up to her full height as she glanced around, "we could always borrow the car. He'd never have to know."

"No, no, no, no!" Jen repeated rapidly, almost shouting as she waved her hands about in a manner to stop that idea. "We are not going there again, the last time I let you 'borrow' something I almost got fired." Jen grimly remembered how long it had taken for her to dig herself out of that hole after they had been caught 'borrowing' something. It had been a bloody hilarious idea at the time, but the aftermath was something Jen had to deal with while Tora didn't. That just reminded Jen how different the two were, and how odd it must look to others for them to be such close friends. A State Alchemist and a thief; that was what people saw them as – though there was so much more than met the eyes.

"Aww, Jenny, you're no fun." Tora smiled cheekily at Jen's over the top reaction to her suggestion. She knew well enough that Roy's place was out of their way, and Tora wasn't even completely sure she could drive the car if they stole it. Well, those were the reasons she'd give anyone else, but there was also a deeper one – she didn't want to get her friend into trouble with the Military again. "Must be the bad influence of that boyfriend of yours, he is never any fun."

They walked in silence for the rest of the block, Jen chewing her tongue so that she didn't say the angry things she was thinking. At the end of the block, they turned the corner and entered the restaurant a few shops down. Relishing in the warmth of the restaurant, Tora didn't notice as two men approached them. Jen smiled as they came closer, the short-black haired man stepped out of sync with his blonde haired companion so that he could help Jen with her coat. A light blush coloured Jen's already red cheeks, and she internally thanked the cold weather for that as she looked away from Roy to smile at her brother standing just behind him.

"Jean, I see you survived the cold."

"I have the Colonel to thank for that, we took the car-"

"Jen, what are these two doing here?" Tora piped up then, cutting off Jean, annoyed that the two men had taken her best friends full attentions at such a time. Jen shared a look with Roy before turning back to her friend and smirking, enjoying how the tables had turned.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? We're having dinner with these two tonight, I'm sure I told you that before we left." Jen had to choke back a laugh as Tora started to piece together what Jen had dragged her into.

"You... you set me up! I can't believe you'd do something like this to me, such a back-stabbing underhanded thing-" Tora quit complaining when she realized that Jen was too busy laughing to listen to her. "Stop laughing at me, Alchemist!"

"Or what, Tora, what can a _photographer_ do to stop a State Alchemist?" Jen paused to smile at her friend, continuing with: "Come on, it's just dinner, let's enjoy it now and you can complain about it later." Tora conceded after a moment of thought, and removed her coat, ignoring Jean when he offered to help. Jen and Roy spilt from the pair to get their table, and sat together so that Jean and Tora would have to sit next to each other. While they were sitting, Jen watched her brother and her best friend closely, hoping that the two would enjoy each other's company. Roy took the chance to snake his arm around Jen's waist, causing her to smile and turn to face him.

"They seem to be getting along," he said, nodding his head towards his Lieutenant and the photographer.

"Looks can be deceiving, sir." _Like the time 'Lady Thorn' kicked Jean's butt_, Jen cringed just slightly at the memory of the time she'd accidentally set her best friend on her brother. She'd seen the scars on him afterward, and became severely sick with guilt – Tora was lucky she hadn't been there at the time, because Jen would have set her alight.

"We're not on duty at the moment, Jen," Roy said with that tone that seemed to always make Jen's skin crawl with excitement. "You can call me Roy."

"On duty or not, you are still my commanding officer," Jen held herself back from including the 'sir' the respect and little military training she had wished her to add. She felt herself getting flustered, the same way she always did when Roy directed his charms her way. "And I was taught to show respect to those better than myself."

"You didn't show much respect for me when we first met," Roy reminded her.

"Sir, tha-" Jen tried to reply indignantly.

"Do I have to command you to use my name?" Roy smirked as he watched Jennifer struggle to think straight enough to speak again, her cheeks blushing a deep red, the colour deepening the longer it took her to speak. Before Jen could come up with a reply, Tora and Jean joined them at the table, giving Jen a reasonable excuse to cut off the conversation.

* * *

><p><em>"Is it just me, or has Jean been acting strangely recently?" Jen questioned out loud after crossing paths with her brother as he stepped out of the office. The few times she had been in the office with him over the last week or so, there had been something strange about Jean's behaviour, something that Jen couldn't put her finger on.<em>

_"Women problems," replied Breda, barely glancing up from the paperwork he was doing._

_"Did he break up with someone?" Jen asked, but simply got a shrug back from Breda. He still couldn't act normally around Jen, remembering sharply what had happened when she suddenly showed up in their lives merely a few years ago. Jen shrugged it off, she was used to people around here acting this way when she was in the room; they would either get over it or she would leave, whichever came about first. Jen placed the folder she had been carrying down on Colonel Mustang's desk, adding it to the other paperwork already building up there, before turning back around. "I could help, what kind of woman is he looking for?"_

_"He mentioned that he wanted a 'cute, smart, funny woman who wasn't likely to cheat on him'," Falman answered, in a tone that sounded like he was reading it from a book. At the mention of the cheating requirement Jen pulled a face and made a half glance back at Roy, catching herself before looking at him. He was her boss at the moment, and no matter what she wanted, spiteful looks, smartass remarks and the likes where dangerous territory should she want to continue working for the State – rather than wasting her time in prison. That and she didn't need to add more fuel to the rumours circling about them dating._

_"I know someone like that." Roy looked up at Jen's back then, giving her a questioning look._

_"You're going to set your brother up on a date?" he asked incredulously, doubting the amount of free time Jen would have to make friends over the last couple of years._

_"Do you have a problem with that, sir?" Jen smirked, stepping away from him and giving him a look that dared him to try something. "I thought raising your Lieutenant's moral would be good for your image, or did I get that wrong?"_

* * *

><p>"Do I have to ask why you dragged me in here?" Jen asked as Tora reapplied her lip gloss in the restroom mirror. They had been waiting on another round of drinks after dinner when Tora had suddenly decided she needed to use the restroom, took Jen by the arm, and didn't let go until they were both on the other side of the door.<p>

"This is a date, isn't it?" Tora finally spoke, putting away the lip gloss.

"I don't know what you mean." Jen replied, keeping the smile from her face, trying to sound as innocent as possible in front of the con artist.

"You are trying to set me up with your brother aren't you?"

"When did you figure it out?" she asked, watching the reaction of her best friend closely.

"When Colonel Firefingers tried to flirt with me while you were ordering," Tora replied with a slight gesture of her hand. "You should have seen the look on Jeanie's face."

"I think it would have been more humorous to see the look on Roy's face when you shot him down," Jen stated, chuckling at the expression she imagined on Roy's face. She would have paid to be there, even though Jen knew that Roy had been simply playing his part.

"You don't care that you boyfriend was trying to chat me up?" Tora asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow.

"Why should I? I asked him to do it, and you obviously shot him down like I knew you would." Jen smiled seeing the annoyance on Tora's face, knowing that all she wanted to do right now was complain that Roy had – or at least tried to – been flirting with her. "So now that you know, what do you think of Jean?"

"Jeanie? Well, he is, umm..."

* * *

><p>"I still can't believe you set me up with you brother," Tora muttered as she went to take another sip of her hot drink. Jen made an 'hmph' noise and shook her head at the girl on her couch, choosing to finish the cookie in her hand before speaking.<p>

"Aren't you over that yet? It was almost two weeks ago."

"Yeah, well, you haven't done anything worse since then."

"You said that like dating Jean is a horrible thing," Jen stated with a small teasing smile. "Has he done anything even close to bad since you guys started going out?"

"... No." Tora replied shortly, putting her mug down on the side table so that she could cross her arms in an exaggerated manner.

"Then quit complaining, 'cause you know I won this one." Jen laughed as Tora continued pretending to be annoyed, though the truth was that she really was enjoying dating Jean. The two of them got along well, and so far neither of their 'day jobs' have gotten in the way – after all, as a con artist, Tora was brilliant at coming up with convincing stories, and Jean had better things to be doing than recounting work to his girlfriend. It was a happy sight, when the two of them were together, and Jen finally felt like she was paying both of them back of all the trouble she'd ever caused.

"Why'd you set us up, anyway?"

"... Because I owed you one - more than one," Jen answered. "Besides, if I didn't look out for you, who would?" The two best friends cracked up laughing then, remembering an old joke they used to share, and hoping for the new ones they'll share.

* * *

><p><strong>Version 5 - Started: 2505/2011 Finished: 08/06/2011**

**Outre would like to thank IdleStripe for loaning out OC character 'Tora' for this story.**


End file.
